I picked up the paper this morning and there were our friends Ed and Edith (!) in this article about the Franklin Graham Festival held in Norfolk, VA. The byline said they were in the choir. (If you look closely in the picture you can see them above the blue background.)
That Ed and Edith were there (in huge numbers) is no criticism of the BGEA or the Grahams, elder or younger. As a prof in college wisely said, "The day I've won more people to Jesus than Billy Graham is when I can start criticizing him."
No, it's another proof that Ed and Edith are about Ed and Edith. They didn't invite any unchurched people to the Festival with them because they're consumers, not contributors. They either could care less about their neighbors or they don't know any outside the faith because they're happy living in their fortress. And I guess that means they could care less, as long as they've got their "fellowship", their Christian music and are being "fed".
One pastor suggested, "We need to do some soul-searching, the faith community..."
Meanwhile a lot of God's energy and dollars went to entertain Ed and Edith in the name of evangelism. The BGEA gave it their best, but with churches full of Eds and Ediths, what else could be expected?
Indeed, we need to search.
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2 comments:
I just wrote about Franklin Graham and his outrageous paycheck- see it here:
http://www.freegoodnews.com/2008/02/2008-christia-1.html
...Bernie
Of course, you did no research into how much of his salary he gives away.
Of course not.
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